Residents urge limits on license-plate readers and complain about county ditching in public comments

Two residents spoke during the public-comment portion of the March 19 Glen County commission meeting about neighborhood-level concerns.

Ed Van Otter of Brentwood Circle said the county's Flock license-plate reader system had grown rapidly and raised privacy and public-safety concerns. "When one appears in public, one is subject to the gaze of fellow citizens at the expense of privacy," Van Otter said, reporting an increase from 45 to 68 cameras in a month and citing examples of alleged misuse from other jurisdictions. He referenced Georgia's stalking statute (Ga. Code §16-5-90) while urging the county to consider limits and oversight. Meeting speakers and staff clarified that the county's Flock system is used as a license-plate reader and stated it does not record plate images in the way described; the chair and law-enforcement staff offered to have a police representative follow up with Van Otter for further explanation.

Gayen Spurl, also of Brentwood Circle, said county-contracted excavations created a foot-deep, 5-foot-wide trench on her lawn that she said did not address local flooding and made mowing and yard care impossible. She said a supervisor visited after she protested and that police were called during the interaction. "These never-ending ditches will make the already bad mosquito problems explode after it rains," she said, and asked the board to consider the quality-of-life impacts and accountability for work in Cameron Place.

Both speakers asked for additional information or remediation; commissioners directed staff to follow up. No formal actions were taken on either issue during the meeting.